My landlady has a black binder filled with photocopies, each of which has been carefully annotated, highlighted and slipped between sheets of clear plastic. With great care, she reads out the title of one of the readings, “Christmas in Stanford.” She goes through the material they have just covered in her English class and points out a prepositional question she either did not have the courage to ask or which her instructor did not have the skills to answer. I consider it, answer with some confidence, and she asks another clarifying question. She notes down my answers and toys with a few possible arrangements of this new phrase, comparing it to Spanish grammar, enjoying the taste of the precise terminology in her mouth. I am aware, suddenly, of the horrible faultiness of my Spanish, the motor of my brain and tongue which now requires more and more coaxing to roar…

So far at UpClose Bolivia, I have been involved in teaching beginner and intermediate English classes at the Mallasa school. Here we teach students aged from eleven to sixty, ranging from school students to members of the local community (such as Josue from our local cornershop!). The students are a pleasure to teach and it feels very rewarding to be so integrated within the community. Furthermore, it’s a pleasure to know that our efforts in our English classroom are contributing to the community tourism project in Mallasa and Jupapina, helping to encourage more English-speaking tourists to the area, and thus bring more trade to the districts.

Another new and exciting project I have been involved in at Upclose is Nuestro Espacio (our space). It is a programme aimed at 7-12 year olds that provides a supervised space for the children to complete school work and then to express themselves through…